March 17: Come to the Green Card Lobby of MPs Before the Shaker Aamer Parliamentary Debate

11.3.15

POSTSCRIPT 11 May 2015: At the General Election on 7 May, 13 of the 41 MPs supporting the Shaker Aamer Parliamentary Group lost their seats. Seven others had announced their retirement as MPs before the election. These changes are noted in brackets after the MPs’ names. Now the election is over, please ask your MPs to join the Shaker Aamer Parliamentary Group, if they have not done so already.

I now have updated information. Shaykh Suliman Gani, a friend of Shaker’s family, has secured the support of the family for an important event on the morning of March 17 — the handing-in of Amnesty International’s petition for Shaker (signed by nearly 32,000 people) to 10 Downing Street at 11am. Saeed Siddique, Shaker’s father-in-law, will be there, along with his brother-in-law, and, hopefully, all three of Shaker’s sons as well.

In the late morning, the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign will be holding a vigil in Parliament Square, and then, at 12.30, supporters will make their way into the Houses of Parliament for a rally organised by John McDonnell MP in Committee Room 11, with speakers including the journalists Andy Worthington (the co-founder of We Stand With Shaker) and Yvonne Ridley, Joy Hurcombe of the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, Aisha Maniar of the London Guantánamo Campaign and the neurologist and human rights campaigner Dr. David Nicholl. Then, at 2pm, there will be a Green Card Lobby in the central lobby of the Houses of Parliament, where constituents will have the opportunity to meet their MPs before the debate and to brief them on Shaker’s case, before the Parliamentary debate at 4.30, to which supporters of Shaker are invited.

Those wishing to take part will need to allow at least half an hour to queue and clear security, but I do encourage you to take part if you’re in London. I’m told that, if MPs are in the House, they are obliged to meet their constituents. As the Parliament website explains, “A Green Card is a card that you fill in if you want to see your MP at the Palace of Westminster. If you want to visit your MP at the House of Commons you can go through the public entrance of the building and fill out your details on a Green Card in the Central Lobby. The officials in the building will then make every possible attempt to find the MP and ask him or her to meet you.” I’m also told that it is hoped that supporters will be able to attend the House of Commons public gallery for the debate.

Below, for your information, if you have not yet written to your MP to ask them to attend the debate, and to join the Shaker Aamer Parliamentary Group, is a list of the 38 MPs (and one London Assembly member) who have joined the group to date [Note: plus three added since this article was published]. Many of them have also stood with the giant inflatable figure of Shaker Aamer that is at the heart of the We Stand With Shaker campaign that I launched in November with the activist Joanne MacInnes.

When the Parliamentary Group met yesterday, the following MPs indicated that they would be attending the debate, as well as John McDonnell: Caroline Lucas, Alistair Burt, Jeremy Corbyn, David Davis, Naomi Long, Andrew Mitchell, Andy Slaughter and Sarah Teather.

Next Tuesday, March 17, lobby your MP to attend the parliamentary debate on Shaker Aamer. It took Andy an incredible amount of work to reach that level of awareness among elected officials – it’s time to hold the government accountable for its failure to bring Shaker home

Thanks, Sarah, for the kind words, To give credit where it’s due, however, it’s important also to remember the hard work and support of John McDonnell MP and Caroline Lucas MP, the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, and my colleague in We Stand With Shaker, Joanne MacInnes, who has been relentless in pursuing MPs and making them aware of Shaker’s plight.

Oh, Gordon Brown. Sad thing is, i’m sure the conservative MPs currently pushing for Diego Garcia files / inquiry into CIA rendition are probably doing so because it was agreed upon and carried out under a Labour government. Not due to commitment to human rights.

Yes, that would be appropriate for the way most MPs behave, Sarah. Constantly batting for their own team, and trying to put down their opponents, without any regard for principles, or what is right and wrong.

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Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo, co-director, We Stand With Shaker. Also, singer and songwriter (The Four Fathers) and photographer. Email Andy Worthington